Tech cuts core curriculum in accreditation move

Texas Tech slashed 215 courses from its core curriculum in the last year, partly to meet its regional accreditor's standards, according to university officials.

The courses are still available to students but no longer qualify as general education courses, officials said.

The cuts should have little to no impact on Tech students, who remain able to choose from more than 400 general education courses, officials and students said. Overall, the university offers more than 4,800 courses.

"My impression is the (cut) courses weren't serving a purpose anyhow. I can't imagine any students (will be) inconvenienced," said Gary Elbow, the associate dean of the Honors College.

The state requires public higher education institutions to have a core, general education curriculum of courses in areas such as math, art and science as a way to ensure students get well-rounded educations and can easily transfer from university to university, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Web site.

Students must have at least 42 general education credits outside their degree area to graduate, the state requires.

Recent cuts to Tech's curriculum won't go into effect until the 2008-09 academic year to avoid disruptions to students, said Ray Desrosiers, chairman of the general education faculty committee that recommended the cuts to the university's provost. The credit standing of students who previously earned general education credits from recently disqualified courses will not change, he said.

The committee cut mostly higher-level core courses in sciences, humanities, arts, math, technology, communications and foreign languages. They didn't belong in the core, which is supposed to be introductory, Desrosiers said.

"I don't think it will make a difference (to students). A lot of people choose the easiest choice, like U.S. History," a recent Tech graduate, Meagan Jukes, said of the cuts.

Smaller cuts in the core will likely follow, Desrosiers said. The committee sought department-level input before recommending cuts to the university's provost, Bill Marcy, and would do the same in the future, Desrosiers said.

The general education committee decided to cut the university's core curriculum prior to Tech's accreditation stumble, officials said. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed Tech on probation in December for failing to show its general education courses produced college-level skills in students.

But the probation highlighted how bloated the core had become and accelerated the housekeeping process, Desrosiers said.

"Faculty members started believing erroneously that there was some kind of prestige associated with having a course in the core. Although there were mechanisms for adding courses to the core, there were no mechanisms for removing (courses) from the core," he said.

The cuts will make it easier to comply with the SACS standard that led to Tech's probation, which requires universities to prove each component of the core curriculum is producing college-level skills in students, said the university's vice provost, Valerie Paton.

Tech is still accredited by SACS, but the probation isn't a minor slap. Usually, it's a last step before SACS removes an institution's membership, according to the association's policies. If membership lapses, an institution's federal funding can be in jeopardy.

Tech and SACS officials predict the probation will be lifted in early December when SACS meets in San Antonio.

The university received a positive evaluation from a SACS official who visited the campus last month, Marcy wrote in an e-mail sent to faculty, staff and students on Tuesday.

Additional SACS officials - led by David Ford, Virginia Tech's dean of undergraduate education - will visit the university in September to further assess its progress, Marcy wrote.

Said Desrosiers, "We are 99.9 percent certain we will get out of probation. That's not even an issue anymore." He is also a member of the university's accreditation committee.

Tech is accredited by 25 agencies, according to its office of communications.